Matrilineal: Countermeasures
by Em Meredith
Summary: Sydney meets up with Jack. Fifth in the Matrilineal series; follows my


TITLE: Countermeasures  
AUTHOR: Em Meredith  
SPOILERS: Nothing in particular-- vague spoilers through Season 2.  
SUMMARY: Sydney meets up with Jack. Fifth in the Matrilineal series; follows my "Hotel" and Macha's "Spark."  
RATING: PG  
DISCLAIMER: I don't own the characters from Alias. I borrowed them from JJ Abrams, Touchstone, and ABC. They're used without intent to infringe, blah blah blah.   
DISTRIBUTION: It lives at my site. Cover Me may have it.  
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This chapter would still be totally unintelligible if it weren't for Macha, who will play "let's plot!" with me even when we're on vacation and/or drunk. Thanks also to Mush for her expertise and to kate for the stalking haikus.  
Countermeasures  
By Em Meredith  
  
Sydney's been in LA for three days when she finally contacts her father.  
  
She finds a pub not four blocks from her father's favorite bar and flirts shamelessly with a college guy. Men, she'd learned, are dogs at this age, especially if you dress like a girl in a beer commercial. Even the presence of an infant won't deter them. There's no doubt that a large part of her appeal is the long blonde hair and the tight t-shirt with just a hint of the lacy push-up bra peeking out. Her glasses add an air of mystery, but they're really meant to mask her features. A ball cap helps with that even more, and in case it doesn't, Sydney's gun is hidden among the Pampers in Jane's diaper bag.  
  
After twenty minutes she's charmed this guy enough that she convinces him to drop a note off with the older man he'll find sitting at Tom Bergin's, nursing his Jack Daniels. She promises this guy-- Brad, as he so charmingly insists she call him -- that she'll have a drink with him when he returns. She's strapping Jane into her carseat, though, before he's a block away.  
  
By the time he hands Jack Bristow a note that says merely "1400," Sydney's speeding along the 10, squinting into the setting sun as she heads away from the city.  
  
The next day, she's waiting near the familiar oil derricks in Carson. She's overwhelmed by memories of other meetings here, not to mention the stench of crude oil, when Jack pulls up in a cloud of dust.  
  
He gets out of his dark sedan and walks over to where she's waiting. He hasn't changed much in the past year -- although there's much more grey in his hair -- and Sydney is suddenly so overcome with relief that she finds herself choking back a sob.  
  
Jack's face, as always, betrays nothing of his emotions, but as Sydney reaches out to him he pulls her into a surprisingly fierce embrace.  
  
Finally, he lets her go and settles down to business while she wipes the tears off her cheeks.  
  
"You're okay."  
  
"Yeah. Dad--" she falters, "I need help."  
  
"Yes." He nods tersely and then looks over her shoulder. "The baby?"  
  
"In the car -- in case you weren't alone." Jack nods again, obviously approving of her precautions. She waves, indicating the car. "Lemme just--"  
  
"Of course."  
  
Sydney opens the rear door and fumbles with the complicated belts on the car seat, surreptitiously wiping at her face again. Jane is in an exceedingly agreeable mood, babbling nonsensically and trying to eat her mother's hair.  
  
Sydney hefts the baby onto her hip and slams the door shut. Jack surveys his granddaughter and her Thomas the Tank Engine overalls with an inscrutable expression -- Sydney's trying to determine if it's disapproval or disappointment when he asks, "I thought -- I thought it was a girl."  
  
Sydney laughs for the first time in weeks. "She is, but apparently her disguise worked. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree after all."  
  
Jack frowns at that -- whether from the reminder of Vaughn or Irina she's not sure -- and she thinks he's gone into mission-planning mode when he surprises her by asking if he can hold Jane.  
  
Sydney obliges, handing the baby over. Jane's just reaching the age where she doesn't like strangers, but luckily this time she goes willingly. Jack looks as if he hasn't held a baby in thirty years -- which he probably hasn't -- but he doesn't hand her back. For her part, Jane looks concerned by this new person, but she dimples sweetly at him when he takes the thumb of his free hand and smoothes out the wrinkles on her forehead that are so like Vaughn's.  
  
Jack must see the resemblance too, as he shifts uncomfortably and turns his attention back to Sydney. "He's okay too, you know," Jack informs her.  
  
Sydney looks away, swiftly, focusing on the dirt at her feet.  
  
"Good. Is he...?" she trails off, not knowing how to finish the question, and not knowing if she wants the answer.  
  
"I think he feels betrayed," Jack sighs and gently pries Jane's sticky fingers off of his silk tie before handing her back to Sydney.  
  
"I did what I had to do," Sydney counters, and she can hear the defensiveness in her voice.  
  
"Yes," he replies, and she can't miss the bitterness in his tone. "It's funny how two people can have such different ideas of what that is," Jack says, frowning. Sydney wonders if Vaughn will end up like this. If maybe he already has.   
  
"Is he looking for us?"  
  
"We have been," Jack confirms. Sydney feels the tears welling up in her eyes again, moved that they'd been searching and frightened that they might have located her.  
  
"But the CIA can't find us," Sydney emphasizes, "I won't let Jane be a pawn."  
  
Jack nods. "And contacting Agent Vaughn will lead them right to you."  
  
"That's why I'm going to bring Sloane down. For good this time."  
  
"Do you plan on doing this by yourself?" It's clear from his tone of voice exactly how ludicrous he thinks that it would be for a spy without a support network to try to care for a six-month-old baby and bring down an international criminal at the same time.  
  
"Well," Sydney smiles, "I thought you might be able to help. Or at least babysit."  
  
At her suggestion, Jack's eyes widen and then his lips twitch, which looks suspiciously like he wants to laugh. But being Jack, he doesn't. He gives her directions to a safe place to hide in La Jolla while he tries to find some intell on Sloane's most recent location.   
  
Two hours later, Sydney and Jane are locked safely in a cozy apartment not far from Kate Sessions Park. Even though it's still just the two of them, Sydney feels safer than she has in months-- since she first found out she was pregnant. She tries not to think of how she would feel even safer if Vaughn were with them, or if she'd done this twelve months ago. She decides to ignore her regrets, or at least try not to dwell on them. She needs to focus all her attentions on destroying Sloane and getting her life back.  
  
But later that night she cries as she smoothes out the furrows in Jane's perplexed brow.  
  
--end--  
----------------------------  
Feedback merrily accepted at emily@healthyinterest.net.  
Stay tuned for Macha's sequel, which will be posted on our Matrilineal page: . 


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